Pastor Brooks Gets His Bike

Men of the cloth all over the U.S. sacrifice each day for their congregations, putting in thousands of hours of personal time mentoring the young, praying for the sick and caring for the less fortunate.

Last winter, Chicago pastor Rev. Cory Brooks of New Beginnings church took his commitment to his church to the next level. For more than 90 days, Brooks camped out on the rooftop of a motel to call attention to his desire to build a community center on the site. His efforts attracted the attention of people from all over the world. He has a contract to buy the motel for $450,000 to turn it into a center, and he received hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations.

On Friday, February 24, the reverend’s prayers were answered. As part of a promotion for the movie “Good Deeds,” Tyler Perry donated the Harley-Davidson motorcycle his character, Wesley Deeds, drives in the film to a church looking to raise money or use it for a particular service to the community. But when Perry found out that Brooks was just $98,000 short of his goal, he offered to make up the difference.

Reverend Brooks recently received the Harley and tweeted a picture of it (pictured above).

Brooks was overwhelmed at the gesture, he said on “The Tom Joyner Morning Show” crew that morning.

“I’ve gotten a thousand phone calls and emails and tweets, and I am going crazy, and this is exceedingly abundantly above what I could have ever asked for. I’ve always wanted to meet Tyler Perry, and two, I’ve always wanted a Harley-Davidson, and I always wanted to be on ‘The Tom Joyner Morning Show,'” Brooks said on the show. “I am so excited. This is remarkable. This is crazy. I’ve been up here 94 days bringing awareness and attention to the gun violence in our neighborhood. I did 10 funerals last year for young black males under the age of 25.”

“What you’re doing,” Perry told Pastor Brooks, “and your dedication to the community and young people there really inspired me. Just hearing the story, that moved me. So, God bless you,”